environment

A new study out of Columbia University warns that North America -- primarily the western US and northern Mexico -- is cruising toward a new potentially record-breaking megadrought fueled by climate change. The findings come amid a long series of drought years in these regions, building upon a body of evidence that North America may face an extreme long-term drought akin to those of the prehistoric period.

You'd think it would be straightforward: a new car gets launched, it gets a set of official economy figures from the EPA, and then you can make a measured comparison before you head to the dealerships. In reality, though, economy testing from the US Environmental Protection Agency isn't quite what most people shopping for a new car might expect it to be.

An announcement from the EPA* effectively suspended environmental rules for organizations in the USA for an indefinite amount of time. The EPA's document claims that because the COVID-19 pandemic is constraining the abilities of groups normally regulated by the EPA, that those groups will not be subject to the same rules as normal. This "temporary policy" is in effect until the EPA says it's done.

NASA is currently operating 11 satellite missions that are monitoring the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. NASA says that those missions show that the ice sheets are melting six times faster than they were in the 1990s. The space agency also notes that if the melting trend continues, the regions are on track to match worst-case scenarios of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for sea-level rise by 2100.

Human activity involving fossil fuels has been a much bigger contributor to climate change than previously thought, a new study from the University of Rochester has found. Methane is a greenhouse gas that, compared to carbon dioxide, doesn't last very long in the atmosphere. However, and as with other greenhouse gases, it does trap heat, contributing to the harmful warming of our planet.

Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon and the world's richest person, has committed $10 billion under his newly announced Bezos Earth Fund. In an announcement on Instagram today, Bezos stated that he wants 'to work alongside others both to amplify known ways and to explore new ways of fighting the devastating impact of climate change on this planet we all share.' Bezos indicates that the $10 billion is just the start of his financial investment into the planet.

A new study out of the Yale School of Public Health has found that air pollution may be able to trigger non-fatal heart attacks, making the ultrafine particles found in this pollution a ‘serious public health concern.’ The research was recently published in Environmental Health Perspectives; it warns that the heart attack risk is particularly high in the first few hours after exposure.

Delta Airlines has announced intentions to become the first carbon-neutral airline across its global operations. The company has pledged $1 billion that will be used over the next decade to reach this goal, which will cover Delta's land and air operations. According to the company, 98-percent of its emissions come from aircraft; in order to neutralize this, the company plans to reduce its carbon footprint and more.

In ways that aren't entirely clear, BP plans to achieve net-zero status by the year 2050 (or sooner) despite its gas and oil operations. The company outlined its ambitious goal on Wednesday, though it didn't have many details on how it plans to actually achieve its mission. As part of this effort, BP says it will 'fundamentally reorganize' its business.

Climate change resulting from human activities has caused a major ocean current to become more turbulent, according to a new study from NASA. The space agency, which also spends considerable time monitoring and studying our own planet, used satellite data spanning a dozen years to measure the Beaufort Gyre ocean current, finding that it is moving faster as a result of rapidly melting sea ice.

Nike has introduced a new product called Space Hippie that it describes as 'exploratory footwear.' This product is made using scrap material that builds up at factories, putting those waste products to better use. The product's name refers to the stereotypical 'hippie' association with caring about the environment and the use of material scraps that are sort of like 'space junk.'

As much as we'd love to keep holding to consumers electronics as much as we could, there are times when they just can't move forward any longer. Usually, that takes years of regular use but some manufacturers often give people reasons to upgrade to a new model sooner rather than later. And what better way to do that than by rendering a device completely useless the way Sonos is doing now with its so-called Recycle Mode.